


The Only

by Brawness



Series: Peach blossoms [4]
Category: Winner (Band)
Genre: Aftermath, Epilogue, History, Longing, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 06:21:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26348530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brawness/pseuds/Brawness
Summary: Before he was an emperor, he was a king. Before he was a king he was a war general. And before he was a general he was just a man. An ordinary man whose heart once loved.And lost.
Relationships: Kim Jinwoo/Song Minho | Mino
Series: Peach blossoms [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1473245
Comments: 11
Kudos: 27





	The Only

**Author's Note:**

> Epilogue to 'Bluebird'

Emperor Song Minho of the Song Dynasty, powerful and harsh, but fair and just. That was how they described him. Before he was an emperor, he was a king. Before he was a king he was a war general. And before he was a general he was just a man. An ordinary man whose heart once loved. And lost. 

What happened in the blur of the years that turned a powerful man into a powerful man with bouts of rage and insanity, no one knew. 

But what the scholars do know was that Emperor Song was once married. According to the townsfolk that knew of her existence, her ladyship was beautiful and kind. Her voice was gentle and soft. She loved to tell stories to her servant’s children using shadow puppets and most of her stories were about the fabled General Song. 

His wife was killed in an ambush by her own family on her wedding day.

Her highness was born of a noble descent, the last of her blood line. Emperor Song completely eradicated the clansmen that betrayed her and the king. 

Her memorial tablet held a place of honor in the Emperor’s ancestral hall, as the imperial wife. 

The first, the only. 

*

He was emperor to the land. A god to many. 

But at the end of the day, Song Minho was a weak shell of a man. A man who often fell into a burning pit of despair and utter loneliness when he did not have the crown to uphold. 

In the privacy of his own chambers, he would prepare two cups of wine each night. The wedding wine they never got to consume. The opposite cup always undrunk. The sight of that cup near drove him to the brink of insanity. Yet years went on and he would repeat the same ritual of pouring. 

He burned everything from that night. Even the wedding robe that he himself ripped away from his beloved’s body. Joohyun. 

No. Jinwoo. 

_ His Jinwoo. _

His beautiful and kind Jinwoo. 

Jinwoo who never did anything bad in his life even though life was unjust, Jinwoo who loved him with a pure heart. 

Minho’s mind was powerful. So powerful, he could sometimes imagine that Jinwoo just sat across from him, his doe eyes smiling. So powerful that when he closed his eyes at night, he could almost smell the plum blossom fragrance of Jinwoo’s hand. The soft warmth of his body. 

And then he would wake up the next day and experience the hell of reality once more. 

That it was he that drove Jinwoo to his death. 

That was another insanity of itself. 

*

Emperor Song has passed in his old age, a just ruler of a peaceful era won by countless wars. 

It was said that he died sitting in his chambers, with two wine cups in front of him. In his hands he clutched a memorial tablet wrapped in aged blue silk. Carved was a name unrecognized yet of obvious importance. 

Song Jinwoo. Imperial wife. 

The scholars did not know what to make of it, thus only made it a small entry in their records, a brief after thought along with the history of the great Emperor Song Minho. The first and last Emperor of the Song Dynasty. 

The mighty emperor feared by many. The emperor who could have conquered the world.

The emperor who could have had three thousand wives and concubines yet chose to be loyal to his dead beloved. 

A tragic and painful love story of complete devotion that was romanticised by many. 

A love story that transcends lifetimes. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> My [twitter](https://twitter.com/usmarchioness?s=09)


End file.
